The Sporting player, Pedro Gonçalves, considers that the goal he scored against Arsenal, in the second leg of the round of 16 of the Europa Leaguewill forever be the «best» of his career and he listed several reasons to defend this idea, recalling that the moment of celebration was «strange» because «I didn’t know what to do» at that moment.
«The celebration? It was weird because – and as you can see from the broadcast – I didn’t know what to do. I started running like crazy, trying to celebrate as much as I could, because I realized it was an excellent goal. I think it will always be the best goal of my career, considering the moment I scored, the type of game it was, against that team, in that stadium. He’s going to live with me for the rest of my life and that’s it», said Pedro Gonçalves, speaking to UEFA.
The lions player also spoke of the perception that the Sporting team had about the positioning of goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale throughout the game, but that the goal «was a spur of the moment thing».
«In the locker room, we commented on the fact that, from the beginning of the game, their goalkeeper moved far away from the goal when he had the ball. I never thought: “If I have the ball, I will try to pass him over because he is far from the goal line”. No, it was a spur of the moment thing. Marcus [Edwards] he was on my left and I saw him giving me space, but when I looked up, I saw a yellow thing, which was the goalkeeper. I saw that he was early and I tried», explained Pote, anticipating a difficult meeting with Juventus in the quarterfinals.
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«It will be an extremely difficult tie, it will prove to be very demanding, given that it is two legs and the first is away from home. It’s a completely different tie to Arsenal, both for the crowd and for us. We saw Arsenal as one of the favorites to win the Europa League, but we managed to knock them out, so we have to wait and see and do our best. Now, it’s about focusing on the first leg in Turin and then waiting for the second leg and trying our best to turn around the moments when things get difficult for us», he envisioned.
The 24-year-old, who played 42 games and 18 goals in 2022/23, spoke a little more about his long-range shooting technique.
«It was born with me, but it also has to do with training. I worked in training and it got better. It also has to do with the type of goals I’ve seen on YouTube and on television. I love watching football and practically watch every game. I always tried to improve and this goal [ndr: ao Arsenal] it also had to do with the way I like to shoot the ball, I don’t usually hit hard with the instep, I try to shoot more in an arc so that the ball makes a slight detour», he said.
